By SEAN DALY Special to the Daily Press
It’s not always easy being every black man’s fantasy. Just ask Denise Richards, star of the new urban comedy “Undercover Brother.”
“I wake up some days and I just feel awful,” she reveals, all flowing brown locks and deep blue eyes. “I can’t always eat what I want, and I have to work out all the time just to stay in shape. I even hired a personal trainer because I’m not motivated to do it by myself. I have to pay someone to make sure I show up for my sessions!”
Fortunately, the hard work is paying off. Since debuting on a 1989 episode of “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” Richards, 31, has watched her career flourish, thanks largely to a careful blend of wholesome, Midwestern charm and seductive, cover girl looks.
In “Undercover Brother” (which opened Friday), the former model and high school cheerleader, stars as temptress Penelope Snow — a.k.a. “Black Man’s Kryptonite.”
Snow and her alter-ego, White She- Devil, are part of a sinister underground movement that threatens to reduce the entire African American population to mindless zombies by distributing a psy-cho-hallucenegic drug through buckets of fried chicken. Only one man can foil their plan — a funked-up master of disguise known as Undercover Brother (comedian Eddie Griffin).
But first, he must resist Richards’ feminine wiles.
“I’ve played a Bond Girl (in “The World Is Not Enough”) and I’ve played vixen girls before, where I was supposed to be taken seriously,” she says. “So this was a chance for me to really have fun.”
But Richards, whose steamy three-way romp with Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon in “Wild Things” is still something of a legend to millions of pre-pubescent boys, admits there were several difficult scenes to film — including a shower stall fight sequence with co-star Aunjanue Ellis.
“The part where we rip each others clothes off... that was a disaster,” she laughs. “Of course, they weren’t ripping in the right places or the glue would come off before it was supposed to. Then we got to the water parts and it was very slippery.”
Today, Richards is warm and dry and relaxing in a 28th floor suite at the St. Regis Hotel. She is dressed in black from head to toe — which perfectly accentuates the $140,000 diamond engagement ring she keeps trying to hide under the table. The large round solitaire (set in platinum and surrounded by an array of smaller diamonds) was a gift from fiancée Charlie Sheen, who popped the question at a spa last December.
“We had talked about getting married and knew that for that to happen there had to be a proposal,” Sheen, 36, told Maxim in February. “She made my life complete. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
The happy couple starred together two years ago in the forgettable comedy “Good Advice.” But sparks didn’t really fly until Richards turned up as a recurring guest on Sheen’s recently-cancelled sit-com, “Spin City,” last fall.
“In my heart of hearts, I knew on our second date that he was the one,” Richards gushes like a schoolgirl. “My mom told me one day that would happen and it did.”
But strangely, no one found out about the romance for weeks.
“We were very quiet,” she says. “We just didn’t go to places where there are paparazzi. We know which restaurants the photographers hang out at and we didn’t want to do that right away. We have to have some privacy in order to have a successful relationship.”
That’s one reason Richards offers few details about the upcoming wedding, which she is actively involved in planning. “Thankfully, Charlie and I have agreed on just about everything,” says the bride-tobe, who chose her younger sister as Maid of Honor. “We really like similar things, which makes it much easier. I think when couples disagree on the band and the food, you have a little bit of a problem.”
The ceremony will be small, she says — about 70 guests.
“Giorgio Armani is designing my dress. As a kid I didn’t think he’d ever be designing my dress. I was a poor girl living in Illinois.”
Downers Grove, to be exact, about 19 miles west of Chicago. That’s where Richards earned the nickname “Fish Lips” at Herrick Junior High School.
After freshman year, Richards parents — Irv, a former phone company executive, and Joni, a homemaker — moved to San Diego, where they still own a small coffeehouse called Jitters.
Richards worked “about 10 different jobs” while attending El Camino High School in Oceanside.
“My first job was working as a bagger at Albertsons (grocery store),” she laughs. Then Richards turned to modeling.
These days, finances are no longer an issue. There’s even enough cash left over to feed an occasional urge to splurge. “I'm a shoe girl,” she admits. “The first thing I did when I got some money was to buy a pair of Dolce and Gabbana shoes for $600. My dad thought I was crazy to spend that kind of money on shoes.”
Richards will earn her next paycheck appearing with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Luke Wilson in the romantic comedy “The Third Wheel.”
But first the actress has a bit of a mystery to solve: whose butt is attached to her body in posters promoting her latest movie.
“That’s not my ass,” she insists. “I slammed on my brakes when I saw it. I saw it at a bus stop and I thought, ‘What the hell did they do to my ass?’Then I got all these phone calls from my girlfriends saying ‘What did they do to you? You look ridiculous!’”
Sounds like a case for Undercover Brother. (Sean Daly is a Santa Monica-based writer and president of Showtime Entertainment.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 6, 2002. Read the original PDF.